Rail bond terminal



March 23, 1943. E. J. sABol.. 2,314,736

RAIL BOND TERMINAL Filed March 1e, 1942 Patented Mar. 23, 1943 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE RAIL BOND TERMINAL Ernest J. Sabol, Pittsburgh,Pa., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Asbury G. Wilson, John RichardWilson, and Theodore F. Wilson, Wilkinsburg, Pa., copartners trading asHanlon & Wilson Company Application March 16, 1942, Serial No. 434,883

4 Claims.

placed in the bore of the stud and a pin is in-I serted into the boreand driven into or against the soft copper, causing it to expand andthereby expand the stud of the terminal into contact with v the rail.

In the terminals of the type herein referred to. considerable diiiicultyhas been encountered in providing a terminal in which the pin is sotightly locked in the terminal as not to become loosened by vibrationscaused by the train running on the rail to which the rail bond isconnected. rIhe terminal is subjected in use to extreme vibrations whichin time tend to cause the pin to become loose from the terminal and thepin lost making the bond unfit for reuse without the pin.

in case the bond is to be removed for any of the.

following reasons: track moving. buildingup of track ends or relocationof old steel. to locations where traflic demands arey not so great. Thispractice is not uncommon with many of the railroads. One of the originalrequisites for an all around rail head bondwas that the bond be of As iswell known, rail bonds are used such design that it can be removed andrein-v Y stalled.

Another reason for locking the pin within the terminal head is to reduceto a minimum the possibility of the pins vibratingr loose and being lostin transit when shipped. In accordance with the present invention, atapered pin is locked in a bore in the terminal head. .In assembling,rthe tapered pin in the termial head, the terminal is by upsetting theouter end of the head adjacent the bore.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates a preferred embodiment ofthe rail bond terminal and a preferred method of making and applying thesame to a railway rail:

Fig. 1 is a horizontal section taken through a portion of a railway railand a portion oi a rail bond;

Figs. 2 and 3 are Vertical sections through a terminal and associatedmechanism for upsetting the head of the terminal against the drivingpin;

In Figs. l, 2 and 3, the driving pin is shown in elevation; and

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the driving pin.

Fig. l shows the terminal, which is indicated generally by the referencenumeral 2 locked in place in the railway rail 3. The rail bond comprisesa conductor 4 such as a plurality of wires,-

the end 5 of the conductor being encased in a sleeve E, both of whichare made integral with the head 'l of the terminal by electric weldingthe conductor end and sleeve end to the terminal head. The terminalcomprises the head l' and an expansible stud 8-which fits into a recessor cavity 9 in the rail. A bore I0 extends through the head 'l andthrough a substantial portion of the length of -the stud 8, the lowerend of the bore being closed by the end wall H of the stud, A softmetal, for example, copper, or other material capable of flowing underpressure, designated by the reference numeral I2, is located in theinner end of the bore and is expanded by driving in the tapered pin I3to the position shown in Fig. 1. The inner end of the pin i3 is providedwith a reduced portion Il! which in the embodiment shown is of conicalshapeY and acts as an expanderffor penetrating the copper I2. When thepin is driven into the position shown in Fig. l. iL expands the copperand also expands the stud 8 into tight engagement with Vthe wall of therail cavity.k

It will be noted that the pin i3 has a cylindrcal portion 13a formingthe lower end of the pin body. This cylindrical portion guides the pin.so that it does not gouge the bore of the terminal head and cause anangle between the axis of the bore and the axis of the pin. It has beendetermined by actual research that if the pin is not maintained instrict alignment with the bore. ime proper installation will result.

A method of making a rail bond terminal of the type shown in Fig. l isillustrated in Figs. 2 and'3. The stud 8 of the terminal is received inan opening i8 of a support or anvil I9, the shouldereZll between thehead l and the stud 8 resting on the upper surface 2l of the support.The terminal has a bore 22 which extends throughout theY length of thehead and throughout a substantial portion of the stud. I'his bore issubstantially cylindrical in shape and of a diameter slightly largerthan the diameter of the cylindrical portion |3a of the tapered pin. Aquantity I2 of copper or other soft material is rst placed in the boreand thereafter the tapered pin is placed in the bore in the positionshown in Fig. 2. A pocket 23 may be preformed in the copper before thecopper is placed in the bore in order to receive the cone-shapedexpander section I4, which extends from the inner end of the bodyportion of the tapered pin. The tapered pin is so located in the borethat a space 2liv is provided between the top surface of the copper andthe shoulder 25 of the tapered pin. An upsetting die or plunger 26 isthen brought into the position shown in Fig. 3. The die has a centrallydisposed hole 2l which receives the upper end of the tapered pin.However, this hole 21 is of sufficient length so that even when the dieis brought down in order to upset the head l the bottom 2B of the holeis spaced from the outer end 29 of the tapered pin. The bottom of thedie 261s formed of two surfaces 30 and 3l disposed at an angle to eachother, in order to form the annular ridge 32, When the die 26 is presseddown into contact with the head 'I of the terminal, the ridge 32penetrates the head and forms the annular V-shaped groove 33 adjacentthe bore as shown in Fig. 3. As the die 26 is pressed against the headl, the annular ridge 32 penetrates the head and due to the slopingsurface 3l) the die upsets the head, forcingthat portion adjacent thebore into engagement with the tapered pin. This locks the tapered pinwithin the head of the terminal, so that it cannot become loosened. Itwill be noted that even after the head of the terminal has been upsetagainst the tapered pin, as shown in'Fig. 3, there still is a space 2libetween the body portion of the tapered pin and the upper surface of thecopper I2.

In making theconnection of the terminal to the rail, the stud 3 of theterminal is placed in a recess or cavity 9 in the rail, as shown in'Fig.1, and the tapered'pin is given a few blows by a hammer so as to drivethe conical expander section I4 ofthe pin into the copper, therebycausing the copper to expand and also expanding the stud into tightengagement with the rail.

Itis to be noted that these terminals are of small size, usually onlyabout 1/2 the size shown in the drawings, and that accordingly the taperof the pin is only very slight. Also the movement of the pin in the borein securing the terminal to the rail is very slight. After the terminalhas been secured to the rail bydriving the tapered pin from the positionshown in Fig. 3 to that shown in Fig. l, any looseness of the pin in thebore may be overcome by again upsetting the head of the terminal toforce it into tight engagement with the pin in a manner similar to thatshown in Fig. 3, This simply involves placing anl upsetting toolZl overthe terminal head and pin and striking the upsetting tool to force thehead against the pin. This second upsetting operation may not benecessary in all cases because the taper of the pin and the movement ofthe pin in expanding the stud 8 are very small. Even without the secondupsetting operation, the pin is retained in the bore because of itstapered construction.

It will be seen from the above description that I have provided a railbond terminal in which a tapered pin is employed as a driving pin foreX- panding the stud portion or" the terminal into tight engagement withthe rail. This pin and the bore in which it is received taper outwardlyfrom the rail, so that the pin is always securely locked in theterminal.

The invention is not limited to the preferred embodiment, which has beengiven merely for illustrative purposes, but may be otherwise embodied orpracticed within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

l. A rail bond terminal comprising a head, an expansible stud adapted tobe received in a rail cavity, a` bore extending through the head andthrough a substantial portion of the length of the stud, one end of thebore being closed by the end wall of the stud, a relatively softmaterial in the bore of the stud, the bore in the head tapering towardits outer end, and a pin of relatively hard material in the bore, saidpin tapering toward the outer end of thefbore and adapted'to be drivenagainst said relatively soft material to expand the stud into tightengagement with the rail.

2. A rail bond terminal comprising a head, an expansible stud adapted tobe received in a rail cavity, a bore extending through the head andthrough a substantial portion of the length of the stud, one end of thebore being closed by the end wall of the stud, a relatively soft metalin the bore of the stud, the bore in the head tapering toward its outerend, and a pin of relatively hard metal in the bore, said pin taperingtoward the outer end of the bore and having a reduced end expandersection at its inner end adapted tombe driven into said relatively softmetal to expand the stud into tight engagement with the rail.

3. A rail bond terminal comprising a head, an expansible stud adapted`to'be received in a rail cavity, a bore extending through the head andthrough a substantial portion of the length of the stud, one end of thebore being closed by the end wall of the stud, a relatively soft metalin the bore of the stud, the bore in the head tapering toward its outerend, and a pin of relatively hard metal iny the bore, saidp-in taperingtoward the outer end of thebore and having a reduced end expandersection at its inner end adapted to be driven into said relativelysoft'metal to expand the stud into tight engagement with the rail, thehead being upset adjacent the open end of the bore to force the headinto engagement with the tapered pin.

4. A rail bond terminal comprising ahead', an

expansible stud adapted'to be received in a'railcavity, a l boreextending through the head and through a substantial portion of thelength of the stud, one end of the bore being closed by the end wall ofthe stud, a relatively soft material in the bore of the stud, the boreinthe head tapering toward its outer end, and a pinfofrelatively. hardmaterial in the bore, said pin having a cylindrical portion forming thelower end of the pin body and acting to guide the pin in the bore of theterminal head, said pin tapering toward the outer end of the bore andadapted to be driven against said relatively soft material to expand thestud into tight engagement with the rail.

ERNEST J. SABOL.

